About

Manifest Destiny

The entire concept of Manifest Destiny was created by the New York journalist John. L. O' Sullivan. It meant that America's fate was to possess or expand across the entire North America; it was undeniable and just waiting to happen. This is the point where many people started traveling west, for many purposes. It is true that America did acquire much land from expanding, but at what cost did we obtain it? I believe that America did not have the proper incentives while fulfilling its "destiny" and its voracious citizens and leaders took advantage of non Americans.

In 1850, Native Americans inhabited areas from Kansas to some parts of Oregon, and almost all the land between. Once the Americans were swayed with the philosophy of Manifest Destiny, they rushed to the West seeking land, money, or salvation. Land issues arose when the Americans and Indians met. Whether it was solved with conflict or compromise, it still ended up in hostility. Battles such as The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 had no sign of negotiation at all, just warfare. When treaties were "passed", or forced, they would be insignificant because it always tended to be one-sided by the Americans, and it was common for them to not uphold the treaty. After enraging the Indians, more fights would break out. Americans showed no mercy for the Natives at all. They force Indians to give away land and then restrict them into small reservations, where they would have to give up all their customs and traditions and follow the lifestyle of Americans. When is it just to prey on passive, weaker races, and take complete advantage of them? The Americans killed countless Indians and even killed a majority of women and children, all because we could not resist the lust for land and money.

On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Texas then voted to be annexed, or added to the United States of America. The Southerners and Democrats supported it, hoping to get more slave states to join the...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...belief in manifestdestiny. Proud of their victories and independence, many Americans thought of themselves as the forbearers of freedom. Americans took this idea and ran with it, making it their new profound slogan. ManifestDestiny asserted that expansion of the United States throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable; it not only influenced the idea of expanding land but also the expansion of democratic institutions and Protestantism, and became a philosophy which can be compared to the idea of imperialism.
The term “ManifestDestiny” was the belief that the expansion of the U.S. was ordained by God to spread over the entire continent, but also many just saw it as a slogan to promote expansion. The term first came about by a man named John L. O’Sullivan in 1845, who expressed the idea that Americans had the God-given right to settle all of North America. This term was used widely by the people who supported the campaign of annexing western territory but also the people who wanted to expand to the Pacific. In John L. O’Sullivan’s article, “Annexation” he exclaims, ".... the right of our manifestdestiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative development of self government entrusted to us. It is right...

...with the thought of expanding west and using the idea of manifestdestiny, which claimed that the American settlers were destined by divine powers to expand across the continent, to justify it. Although the land-hungry nation did gain a vast amount of new territory, westward expansion in the name of manifestdestiny was not justified because of the many Indian lives that were destroyed, the total loss of integrity of the now brutal American empire, and the multiple conflicts that would result from it.
Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been widespread since the days of John Smith (ushistory.org, 29). The idea that American culture was superior had consumed the settlers to a point of no turning back. They killed, removed, or made slaves out of the Indians who had the misfortune of getting in the way of “manifestdestiny”. One very popular painting known as “American Progress” portrayed an angel moving across the land in advance of settlers, replacing darkness with light and ignorance with civilization. This is implying to the beholder that western life was not good before the settlers arrived and that the Native Americans were ignorant and primitive, which is simply just an assumption (ushistory.org, 29).
The fact that Americans had no logical reason to expand west and instead resorted to using the idea of divine right is just...

...ManifestDestiny
This painting (1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here Columbia, intended as a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she travels; she holds a school book. The different economic activities of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation. The Native Americans and wild animals flee.
Events leading to
the US Civil War
Northwest Ordinance
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
Missouri Compromise
Tariff of 1828
Nullification Crisis
Nat Turner's slave rebellion
The Amistad
Texas Annexation
Mexican–American War
Wilmot Proviso
Ostend Manifesto
ManifestDestiny
Underground Railroad
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Kansas–Nebraska Act
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Sumner
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
Election of 1860
Secession of Southern States
Star of the West
Corwin Amendment
Battle of Fort Sumter
This box: view · talk · edit
ManifestDestiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States (often in the ethnically specific form of the "Anglo-Saxon race") was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was used by Democrats in the...

...How did ManifestDestinymanifest itself?
ManifestDestiny manifested itself in several ways during the period 1840-1896. Almost every major crisis or notable event was somehow related to manifestdestiny. To understand the meaning of ManifestDestiny, we need to go back to its origins.
The term ManifestDestiny was first used by John O´Sullivan in July-August 1845, in the Democratic review; “our manifestdestiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” O´Sullivan said this while asking Congress for the annexation of Texas. The annexation followed quickly after but O´Sullivan´s use of sentence was barely noticed. Later in 1845, O´Sullivan reused the phrase but this time it created an extremely influential political idea.
The general idea of Sullivan´s phrase was that God gave the United States of America territory so that the American people could travel westwards and settle on land that was rightfully theirs. We can notice that ManifestDestiny is a racial doctrine and it put forward the white supremacy. Some people say, that the idea served as a justification for the expropriation of Native American lands. This theory cost the death of many Whites, Blacks and Native Americans....

...﻿Tara Hickman
Mr. Sandstrom
American History
ManifestDestiny and Division
ManifestDestiny was the rationalization for the Americans to satiate their hunger for greater power and control over the land from coast to coast. As America grew the differences in things such as economy, views of slavery, and overall ways of life between the North and South also grew and created division within the nation.
John O’Sullivan was the first person to use the term ManifestDestiny, the first time was to argue about the annexation of Texas and the second, when the term actually caught on, referred to the dispute about the border of Oregon Country with the British. The piece where he mentions ManifestDestiny, referring to Oregon Country, was in the New York Moring News on December 27, 1845. It is as follows, “And that claim is by the right of our manifestdestiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”
People have inferred according to this part of the column ManifestDestiny was a pre-ordained right by the power of God for people of the United States to claim the all of the continent from coast to coast. Others would say that it’s the rationalization for America’s greed...

...ManifestDestiny and Foreign Policy
The term "ManifestDestiny," which American writer John L. O'Sullivan first used in the New York Democratic Review in 1845. , describes what most 19th-Century Americans believed was their God-given mission to expand westward, occupy a continental nation, and extend U.S. constitutional government to unenlightened peoples. The idea was the driving force behind the rapid expansion of America into the West from the East, and it was heavily promoted in newspapers, posters, and through other mediums. While the ManifestDestiny was not itself an official government policy, it had a critical impact on the foreign policy of the U.S. and encouraged Westward colonization, territorial acquisition, and American thought during the 19th century.
Westward expansion A.K.A. “Manifestdestiny” led to America’s rapid acquisition of the old Mexican Southwest and the Oregon Territory that marked the fulfillment of President James K. Polk's expansionistic campaign promises. Polk ran on only one platform -- westward expansion. He wanted to officially claim the southern part of Oregon Territory; annex the American Southwest from Mexico; and annex Texas. Thus, Polk’s desire for land would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from...

...
Ideas of ManifestDestiny and the Monroe Doctrine Expansion
The United States expanded by using the ideas of ManifestDestiny and the Monroe Doctrine to justify all their actions during expansion. ManifestDestiny is simply just the belief that the United States had a God given mission to spread their civilization no matter who it harmed by the conquest of the entire Western Hemisphere. The Monroe doctrine on the other hand has three major ides that it consists of; no European countries could colonize in any of the Americas. The second idea of the Monroe doctrine was that it would enforce Washington’s rules of foreign policies. Lastly, it became the idea that any attempt to colonize the United States would be a threat to their national security. The United States followed both of these ideas in order to expand into the country that we are today.
ManifestDestiny meant that Americans were the chosen individuals chosen by God to create a modern society. It was the territorial expansion of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. During the early nineteenth century the expansion of the United States into the new western territories did nothing but cause problems by bringing the Americans more conflict with Native Americans, Mexicans, the British, and the Spanish. There were a slight few people that expressed moral reservations about displacing...

...ManifestDestiny was a phrase which invoked the idea of divine sanction for the territorial expansion of the United States. It first appeared in print in 1845, in the July-August issue of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review. The anonymous author, thought to be its editor John L. O'Sullivan, proclaimed "our manifestdestiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our multiplying millions."
The philosophical support for manifestdestiny was based on the idea that America was destined to expand democratic institutions in North America, which gave the nation a superior moral right to govern areas where other interests would not respect this goal.
The specific context of the article was the annexation of Texas, which had taken place not long before. Other applications of the notion of manifestdestiny were soon found. It was used to promote the annexations of Mexican territory acquired in the Mexican-American War, of territory in Oregon gained through negotiations with the British, and the seizure (not carried out) of Cuba from the Spanish during the 1850's.
In the mid 19th century, expansionism, especially southwards, faced opposition from those who opposed slavery. The public now linked expansion with slavery. As more territory was added to the United States in the following decades, whether or not "extending...